Nordsee 1 topside in place

Scaldis has installed the offshore substation at the 332MW Nordsee 1 wind farm in the German North Sea.

The Bladt-built 2100 tonne substation was tugged on a three-day journey to the construction site 40km north of the island of Juist.

Upon arrival, Scaldis’ floating crane Rambiz placed the substation onto the 50-metre foundation on Wednesday.

The structure extends approximately 40 metres above sea level.

A helicopter landing platform on the top deck of the substation allows all-weather access to the platform for operation and maintenance work.

“We are now in the process of offshore commissioning with our suppliers Bladt Industries and Semco Maritime, out of our base harbour in Norderney,” said project manager Matthias Esken.

“Looking ahead, TenneT’s export cables and the inter-array will be installed. We will then commission all of the systems, so that under current planning we are ready in autumn for the connection of the wind turbines, which we plan to install early 2017.”

The 54 Senvion 6MW turbines will be connected to the offshore substation by 10 strings of cables, with an overall length of approximately 70km.

Full commissioning of the wind farm is slated for 2017.

Nordsee 1 is owned by Northland Power (85%) and RWE International SE (15%).

Image: Nordsee 1 substation (RWE Innogy)